Tufts cancels Scaramucci event over lawsuit threat

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci poses for a photograph after an interview with the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. Scaramucci told The Associated Press on Monday that although he has not spoken to Donald Trump in over a month, he talks to the president's inner circle "regularly" and considers himself a media "surrogate" for the administration. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Ariel Schalit

Monday, November 27, 2017

Print

MEDFORD (AP) — Tufts University postponed an event with Anthony Scaramucci after the former White House communications director threatened a lawsuit over an opinion piece published in the student newspaper.

Scaramucci was scheduled to speak at the university’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on Monday, but a university spokesman told The Boston Globe the event would be delayed until “legal matters” are resolved.

In a letter dated Nov. 21, Scaramucci’s lawyer said he would take legal action unless the newspaper retracted “false and defamatory allegations of fact” in an op-ed piece calling for Scaramucci’s removal from an advisory board at the school. Scaramucci is a 1986 graduate of the school.

Graduate student Camilo Caballero wrote in a Nov. 6 piece that a man “who is irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist and who exuded the highest degree of disreputability should not be on the Fletcher Board.”

The piece also criticized a poll posted by The Scaramucci Post Twitter account as “giving comfort to Holocaust deniers.” Scaramucci said the poll, which asked users how many Jews were killed in the mass slaughter, was posted without his permission. He said a Jewish friend conceived of the idea to highlight the public’s ignorance of the event.

Caballero says Scaramucci is trying to prevent him from using his First Amendment rights.

“He is someone that uses his money to gain power and his wealth to buy himself into things that will get him attention,” Caballero said. “And he uses this power as a scare tactic.”

Caballero’s piece echoed some of the complaints raised by other students and administrators who signed a petition calling for Scaramucci’s removal from the board. Scaramucci said he had been looking forward to responding to the concerns until Monday’s event was called off.

“I’m shocked that a university that I love and have been a part of for 35 years is silencing that debate because of my request for an apology,” he said.